Con Brio, long been a respected chorus in the region, has just developed a new aspect: a youth choir.

The Con Brio Youth Choir will debut in Sunday's concert, performing with the adult chorus on John Rutter's 2003 Mass of the Children.

This dramatic piece gives young voices an integral role, and it uses Latin Mass and other English texts as it moves from morning to night. Rutter wrote the composition after his son died in an accident while a student at Cambridge.

The concert focuses, too, on a series of songs about the love of water, including William Hawley's "Io Son La Primavera" and Aaron Copland's "Long Time Ago." It all wraps up with Rutter's arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Soloists are bass John Dominick III, who debuted at Carnegie Hall in December singing Mozart's Requiem, and soprano Danielle Munsel Howard.

Stephen Bruce conducts, with music by the Con Brio Festival Orchestra.

Lisa Feltes prepared the youth choir. That choir, by the way, is jointly sponsored by Con Brio and the Community Music School.

- KRISTINA DORSEY

Con Brio concert, 4 p.m. Sunday, Christ the King Church, 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme; $25; (860) 526-5399, conbrio.org.